A wide variety of cleaning systems and apparatus employing the same to clean the cylinders of printing presses are known. Typical blanket cleaning systems and apparatus employing the same, including cleaning blankets and cleaning solutions, are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,135,448 to Moestue which is directed to a mechanism for cleaning a cylinder that is provided with a cleaning cloth which is wetted with a cleaning fluid or solution prior to its encountering the pressure roller; U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,391 to Futch et al. is directed to a composition for ink removal that exhibits a low vapor pressure and which is a low vapor pressure organic compound; U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,182 to Sawaguchi et al. is directed to a cleaning apparatus in which a cleaning cloth is dampened by a liquid; U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,716 to Gerson is directed to a wash for removing ink comprising a low volatile organic compound; U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,739 to Loos is directed to a washing device comprising a cleaning cloth dampened with a washing medium and U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,128 to Hara is directed to a device for cleaning a cylinder of a printing machine comprising a cleaning cloth impregnated with a cleaning liquid.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,567 to Staehr is directed to a liquid for cleaning ink from printing machines; U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,342 to Hara is directed to a method for cleaning the cylinder of a printing machine; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,639 to Krawack is directed to a cloth moistened with a low vapor pressure cleaning agent for removing ink; whereas U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,754 to Weltman et al. is directed to a cloth soaked with a cleaning formula and U.S. Pat. No. 5,194,173 to Folkard et al. is directed to a method for removing ink from printing machines. Still further, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,344,361 and 4,757,763 to MacPhee et al. is directed to automatic blanket cylinder cleaners provided with cleaner fabrics adapted to contact the blanket cylinders of printing presses. On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,080 to Gasparrini et al. is directed to a cloth supply system for the blanket cylinder for use in printing presses.
While the above-mentioned patents accomplish their purposes to a satisfactory extent, they still exhibit a variety of drawbacks. For example, they usually require apparatus, such as pumps, spray bars, manifold lines, valves, and the like as part of the automatic blanket cleaning systems for introducing the cleaning solvents or solutions to the cleaning fabric just prior to actual use.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,157 to Gasparrini et al., the present applicants, attempted to overcome these problems. That patent is directed to a pre-packaged, pre-soaked cleaning system for use with printing machines or the like to clean the cylinders of such machines and which comprises a pre-soaked fabric roll saturated to functional equilibrium with low volatility organic compound solvent and which is disposed around an elongated, cylindrical core and a sealed or a shrunken and sealed plastic sleeve disposed around and in contact with the fabric roll, whereby the pre-soaked saturated roll can be transported and stored vertically and/or horizontally until use without substantially disturbing the distribution of the solvent in the fabric roll and detrimentally effecting the cleaning ability of the fabric. The low volatility, organic compound solvent used is typically selected from vegetable oils and citrus oils and the like. These solvents have a low viscosity so that the solvents are Newtonian fluids.
While the invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,157 works well for its intended purpose, improvements have been discovered. When the patented product is placed in the vertical position, the solvent shifts slightly downward in the evacuated package. When the package is restored to the horizontal position, the solvent migrates back towards equilibrium in the roll. This migration is caused by air pockets in the fabric of the roll.
Improvements have been developed and are embodied in patent applications commonly assigned to assignee. These improvements include the use of a strip of cleaning fabric having a reduced air content as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/431,799, entitled CLEANING SYSTEM AND PROCESS FOR MAKING SAME EMPLOYING REDUCED AIR CLEANING FABRIC. An alternate improvement involves saturating the strip of cleaning fabric with a low volatility solvent on site or on the press, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/431,932 entitled SOAK ON SITE AND SOAK ON PRESS CLEANING SYSTEM AND METHOD OF USING SAME.
There still exists, however, a need for providing a cylinder cleaning system which improves upon the above-mentioned conditions and does not require the strip of cleaning fabric to be saturated with a low volatility, organic compound liquid solvent. The present invention fulfills such a need.
The foregoing specific objects and advantages of the invention are illustrative of those which can be achieved by the present invention and are not intended to be exhaustive or limiting of the possible advantages which may be realized. Thus, these and other objects of the invention will be apparent from the description herein or can be learned from practicing the invention, both as embodied herein or as modified in view of any variations which may be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, the same being realized and attained by means of parts, constructions, instrumentations, methods and combinations pointed out in the claims. The present invention resides in the novel parts, constructions, arrangements, combinations, methods and improvements herein shown and described.